House to Vote on Contempt Resolution Against AG Garland and Begin Work on NDAA, Nominees in the Senate
Jason Pye - Vice President, Due Process Institute
Point of Order is a (mostly) weekly preview of key congressional activity for those with more than a passing interest in federal policy.
Congressional Baseball Game: The annual Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park is Wednesday. Tickets are available here. The team rosters are here. Republicans are riding a three-game winning streak. Last year, Republicans scored 16 runs to Democrats’ 6. Republicans also have the most wins in the game, with 45.
DPI at the Clean Slate’s 2024 Convening: Tray and I are heading up to Philadelphia on Wednesday for the Clean Slate Initiative’s 2024 Convening. The Convening is Thursday and Friday. I’m on a panel, “Leveraging a C4 and Lobbying Power,” on Friday at 10:30 am. Come say hi and hang out!
Schedule and suspensions in the House: The House returns on Tuesday at 2:00 pm for legislative business. Votes are postponed until 6:30 pm. The House will also be in session on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. No votes are expected on Thursday and Friday. Eleven (11) bills are expected to be considered under the suspension of the rules (listed below). The cost estimates for those bills are here.
H.R. 7104, National SBDC Advisory Board Improvement Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 7988, SPUR Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 7989, ThinkDIFFERENTLY About Disability Employment Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 8014, Transparency and Predictability in Small Business Opportunities Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 7984, Rural Small Business Resilience Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 537, Forgotten Heroes of the Holocaust Congressional Gold Medal Act (Financial Services Committee)
H. Res. 965, Calling for the immediate release of Ryan Corbett, a United States citizen, who was wrongfully detained by the Taliban on August 10, 2022, and condemning the wrongful detention of Americans by the Taliban (Foreign Affairs Committee)
H. Con. Res. 27, Condemning Russia's unjust and arbitrary detention of Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza who has stood up in defense of democracy, the rule of law, and free and fair elections in Russia, as amended (Foreign Affairs Committee)
S. 138, Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act (Foreign Affairs Committee)
H.R. 6543, No Hidden FEES Act (Energy and Commerce Committee)
H.R. 2964, WIPPES Act (Energy and Commerce Committee)
Bills that come to the floor under suspension of the rules require two-thirds of members present and voting for passage. This is the most common way that bills considered by the House come to the floor. Some of these bills may be passed by a voice vote, rather than a roll call vote. Most bills that come to the floor under suspension aren’t widely considered controversial, although leadership may occasionally test a bill under suspension to gauge opposition or sneak a bill through the chamber.
Rule bills: The House Rules Committee will meet at 12:00 pm on Tuesday to markup the rule providing for the consideration of the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2025, H.R. 8070, and the report to accompany the Resolution Recommending that the House of Representatives Find United States Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in Contempt of Congress for Refusal to Comply with a Subpoena Duly Issued by the Committee on the Judiciary, H.Res. ____. More than 1,300 amendments have been filed to NDAA. Of course, not all of them will be made in order. Probably most won’t.
Begin Again Act filed as an amendment to NDAA: Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) filed the text of the Kenneth P. Thompson Begin Again Act, H.R. 4958, to NDAA. The Begin Again Act eliminates the current age restriction for expungement of a simple possession offense. Current law restricts expungement for simple possession to individuals under the age of 21. All requirements that exist in current law still remain in place. The amendment is bipartisan. The cosponsors are Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), Barry Moore (R-AL), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), and Daniel Goldman (D-NY).
Party divisions in the House: Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA) was sworn in on June 3. The party divisions in the House are 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats. The current vacancies are CO-04 (Buck), NJ-10 (Payne), OH-06 (Johnson), and WI-08 (Gallagher).
House committee schedule: The full House committee schedule for the week is here. If you’re interested in watching any of these hearings online, you can find committee websites here.
More nominees in the Senate: The Senate returns at 3:00 pm on Tuesday to resume consideration of the nomination of David Rosner to serve as a Member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Cloture motions were also filed on the nominations of Lindsay S. See to serve as a Member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Judy W. Chang to serve as a Member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Around 5:30 pm, the Senate will proceed to a roll call vote on the nomination of Stephanie Sanders Sullivan to serve as Representative of the United States to the African Union. Cloture was invoked on the nomination before the Senate adjourned last week.
Quick recap of the contraceptive bill last week: On Wednesday of last week, the Senate rejected the cloture motion to the motion to proceed to the Right to Contraception Act, S. 4381, by a vote of 51 to 39. Three-fifths were required to advance the bill. (Usually, that’s 60 votes if all senators are present and voting. In this case, with absences, 54 votes were needed.) Nine Republicans and one Democrat missed the vote. Only Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) crossed party lines to vote for the cloture motion. Republicans have an alternative bill—the Allowing Greater Access to Safe and Effective Contraception Act, S. 4638, which they prefer over the Democratic-led bill.
Senate committee schedule: The full Senate committee schedule for the week is here. If you’re interested in watching any of these hearings online, you can find committee websites here.
Due Process Institute is a bipartisan nonprofit that works to honor, preserve, and restore principles of fairness in the criminal legal system. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.